Pick a Hairdo!

The February 1972 edition of Womans Day had one of the most comprehensive articles showing how to do many common hairstyles of the time with a classic wetset or sometimes a blow dry. Unlike many other articles, it included how to adjust your set for different hair textures. If there ever was reference article on late 1960s or early 1970s hair this is it! (As always for a bigger view, right click with your mouse on the image and select View Image, then left click).

 

Here is the table with details of how to do the sets for different hair textures. The setting patters are at the end. This is also a great example of how only a few different setting patterns can do many different hairdos.

How to use Setting Patterns from 1974

There are plenty of setting patterns online for 1960s and 70s hair. Here is a nice tutorial from Set 'n Style (1974) and how to use those setting a patterns, and about how to do hair 1970s style in general. (As always for a bigger view, right click with your mouse on the image and select View Image, then left click).

 

 

Some Hairdressing Hints from 1961

Here are some hair setting tips from HairDo April-May 1961. If you trying to create hairdo from the 60s, where could you find better instructions than in an article written in 1961? (As always for a bigger view, right click with your mouse on the image and select View Image, then left click).

What's New in Hair Dryers (in 1965 that is!)

I came across this article showing the different home hair dryer types available 1965 in the May Hairdo issue. It interesting to look at and might be a useful reference if you are looking planning to purchase a vintage dryer. (As always for a bigger view, right click with your mouse on the image and select View Image, then left click).

I have the Oster rigid hood dryer on this the first page. Its a great as an interesting piece of vintage, but not quite so good as a dryer.

 The GE dryer below is worth mentioning. They seemed to have moved to the heating element to the end of the hose just where it attaches to the bonnet to keep the hose cool. I'm not sure I would want a heating element that quite that close to my hair. Seems a bit dangerous!  What must have been the previous model of that dryer had the heating element in the main dryer body like all the others. I have one and its a great dryer, being remarkably quite. It also also a "reach in" bonnet so you can check or re-adjust your curlers without removing the hood, great for fixing that one roller that's just too tight. I'm not sure if the "improved" model below has the same feature.

A few curlers from the "What were they thinking" category

I was pleased to come across two types of vintage rollers that I had never seem before: metal mesh rollers (or unknown brand) and Tip-Top "Controllers". Both seem quite unique.

 

Metal mesh rollers

 

I think these metal mesh rollers are made from aluminum because they are very light. They are also solid since they are somehow made from a single piece of metal (not a woven wire or nylon mesh the way most mesh rollers are) and smooth. Yes, smooth like a magnetic roller. But seem very hard to wind neatly because the hair does not cling to them the way it does with magnetic rollers. Unfortunately, the holes in them are a little to small for plastic roller piks to secure them, so I gave up trying them

These certainly seem like very high quality rollers, and with the metallic coloring even look nice. I'll have to find the narrow metal piks for German brush rollers and have another go at trying these curlers again sometime.

Tip-Top "Controllers"

 "Soft as foam, curls like magnetic, holds like a brush roller" is what it says on the package. 

Curls like magnetic rollers is probably true. They certainly don't grip the hair well like brush rollers should. The bristles are far apart and thin, and while hair slides around the roller almost like a mag roller, it stays loose. But the worst thing is the bristles which are poky uncomfortable to say the least. So bad I didn't even try them. I'm guessing you never see them because of that. A bit surprising from Tip-Top since they already had some very nice lines of curlers. But perhaps they worked well for really long hair in spite of  short curly hair shown on the package.

If you have ever come across or used either of these rollers, please let me know. It would interesting to know how they were actually used at the time.

Dippity-do and Wil-hold Curlers

I was so lucky to get half a jar of real vintage Dippity-do on eBay. Dippity-do was apparently the  home setting gel in the 60s and 70s, and came in two colors depending on the strength: green for regular and pink for strong.

I was lucky enough to get this jar: 

The instruction on the back say:

This fresh cool gel makes winding faster, neater.
Hair feels clean ... has body. sets last longer.

AFTER SHAMPOOING - apply a generous teaspoonful to damp hair - comb through - then set. or - with fingertips - apply to each strand as you roll. 

BETWEEN SHAMPOOS - apply directly to dry hair, strand by strand, as you roll. 
FOR STYLING - use a tiny bit on fingertips to smooth "wild" hairs, flatten bangs, hold flip-ups,  etc.

The "etc." is actually part of the instructions.

It also came in a stronger Pink colored version:

   

(from http://pinterest.com/pin/524247212843524176/)

Apparently it was even sold in Germany:

 (from http://pinterest.com/pin/524247212843524232/)

Dippty-do that appeared later in these jars is a more modern version and the not the same. If you see one of these jars, don't be fooled:

To make the best use of  the half jar of real vintage Dippity-do that I had, I tried to do the most authentic 60s type sets possible, first with my usual vintage Solo Sleepeasy plastic brush rollers,  then with classic black wire brush rollers, and finally with the so typical Wil-hold plastic brush rollers, all set quite tightly as per the typical 1960s way of winding curlers. I would love to say that the vintage Dippity-do was so much better than the modern version, or any modern setting lotion for that matter, but it wasn't. It was pretty much the same. There was one difference though and that was the smell. Vintage Dippity-do has a very unique and wonderful smell that I would describe as somehow sharp and sweet at the same time.  That really doesn't describe it well, but maybe someone who used and remembers it can post a bit of a description. It certainly seems to be fondly remembered here ,  here  and  here .  

There are  some really  vintage Dippity-do commercials on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxTunPvi5pY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtKzTv9Opzo    
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vi4PPFXNL5Y
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_djo3iKfgjs 

 and lady wonderfully recalling Dippity-Do and the 70s in general:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=0Ofx9c6uwLo

The one unexpected things as a result of trying Dippity-do was discovering how the Wil-hold rollers turned out to be the most comfortable  rollers when set quite tightly. I usually find the Solo-Sleepeasy rollers the most comfortable, but wound tighter they get too prickly. Wil-hold rollers are much  more comfortable if you need tightly set rollers, which probably accounted for their popularity in the 60s and 70s.

Here is the classic Wil-hold roller set from the picture on the package:

Feeling so nicely set all the time with the occasional whiff of the iconic Dippity-do smell was a really wonderful vintage experience and I certainly wish I has some more real Dippity-do.  Rediscovering Wil-hold rollers was also great, and I will make a point of using them more often.

1963

As part of the continuing series of  Mad Men hairdos from Karen's  Bobbins and Bombshells  blog (see the latest article about doing Peggy's Hairstyle here), here is yet another vintage hairstyling article from April, 1963's Good Housekeeping. This article is a real gem because the hairdos featured in it are so iconic of that period. Unfortunately,  the page with "hairdo #1"  is missing, presumably because someone tore it out to try it.  If  you happen  to have a copy of  that magazine and a scanner, please send me a copy and I'll post it! As always, click on an image for a larger view (and then right click->view image, and then click again  for even bigger).